


Christmas Weather

by xxsilverlist



Category: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: Bad Weather, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Cooking Lessons, Cuddling & Snuggling, Holidays, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Snow, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, enjoy, i always write these two as really sappy wtf, sings off key "do you wanna build a snowman", sorta i think, this is really sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:26:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22470091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxsilverlist/pseuds/xxsilverlist
Summary: It finally snows in El Paso, causing absolute glee for one and absolute annoyance for the other.A soft hearted christmas fic, with fluff and cute stuff and lots of mentions of food.
Relationships: Aristotle Mendoza/Dante Quintana
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Christmas Weather

**Author's Note:**

> This sat waaay longer than I meant it to on my laptop if the title is anything to go by but I'm still posting it because its still winter right?? Thats how this works?? 
> 
> P.S I haven't written for this fandom in while but these boys have a special place in my heart always.

**Christmas Eve.**

The wind was cold and biting, enough so that you needed a heavy jacket during the day. Above Dante the clouds were coming in over the mountains, dark and gloomy and full. He’d heard the meteorologist yesterday morning talking about snow for Christmas but he didn’t think it would actually happen. They were in the hottest part of Texas after all! Dante was pretty sure that it also didn’t snow in deserts either, like that was a given.

Nonetheless his mother had wrapped him up in a coat, scarf, and beanie citing the frozen plants in their backyard as reference to what might happen to him if he even thought of taking off his boots before he got into Ari’s house.

He steps up to Ari’s porch, cradling the two presents underneath his left arm and turns the knob.

The door swings open easily letting Dante into the house. There’s laughter coming from the kitchen that makes Dante smile and he quickly chucks the presents underneath the tree not bothering to search around for the gift he knows Ari must have gotten for him.

He makes his way to the kitchen and announces himself, whistling high.

“Dante! _Mijo_ , come help Ari mix the masa for the tamales,” Ari’s mom sings out and Dante laughs at the sight of Ari elbows deep in masa as he tries to mix the deep pot full of it. On the table behind him his sisters wave going back to stuffing the corn husks with masa, then shredded pork, and finally some red chile.

Dante removes his snow clothes, carefully rolling up his sleeves and sticks a hand in the pot. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas!” Everyone rings out and Ari huffs, sending a look his way.

“You going to help me mix, or you wanna chat with the girls?” There’s no bite in his voice, Dante knows he’s only poking fun at him but Dante raises an eyebrow anyway getting a sorry out of his boyfriend.

They mix the filling, using one arm for five turns and then switching, the thick dough sticking to them and their shirts.

Eventually there’s multiple stacks of tamales around the kitchen counters, the smell of them mingling with the other smells going on as Ari’s mom makes Christmas dinner for later tonight. He can see the ham roasting in the oven and the fixings are on the stove. It makes the kitchen hot and almost unbearable but the warmth of this family is addicting and Ari makes it all the more bearable.

“Mrs. Mendoza if you don’t mind me asking, why are you making eight dozen tamales?” Dante can’t help to ask as Ari begins to mix another batch of dough in the pot, not bothering to measure, just pouring.

The girls laugh behind him, whispering in Spanish.

“ _Ninas_ , enough.” Ari’s mom sends the girls a look before softening her face and facing Dante. “It’s a tradition of mine that I started when I moved to this house, I make tamales for us for Christmas, I give a dozen to the neighbor and a dozen to the homeless shelter. Now that my girls have families, I give them a dozen each, another to a coworker of mine, and now you get a dozen.”

Dante can feel himself blush and he’s about to try and decline the gift when Ari speaks up, face smushed up against the window.

“They say it’s supposed to snow, do you think it’ll snow?” He sounds excited, almost, like it’d be the best in the world to happen if it snowed.

Dante snorts and walks up next to Ari. “You’re not missing out on anything special; all snow does is create slush and agony.”

“Agony you say,” Ari gives him a smile. “Agony.”

“Boys, finish this last batch and you two can go elsewhere,” Mrs. Mendoza scolds half-heartedly, pointing a spoon in their direction.

Ari groans in protest but the two of them both make their way to the pot sticking their hands in all the way one more time.

When they’re relieved of tamale making duty, Ari drags him to his room ignoring the men in the garage playing dominoes and the kids in the living room making messes with crayons and toys.

The door shuts behind them, offering peace and quiet at last and Dante is about to say as much when Ari scoops Dante’s face in his hands and kisses him full on the mouth.

Once.

Twice.

And then a third.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all fucking afternoon,” Ari whispers against his lips and Dante smiles.

“Then why didn’t you?” Dante teases, nipping at Ari’s lips.

“And what listen to my sister’s making fun of me for the rest of the night, no gracias,” Ari laughs placing one more kiss on Dante’s lips before pulling away.

“Come on, I’ve got a new cd for you to listen to,” Ari says pressing play to his cd player. Dante hops onto the bed as the first few notes of Under Pressure began to play. He lays backs using one arm to cover his eyes and the other seeks out Ari, pulling his boyfriend to his chest.

They must’ve fallen asleep because the next thing Dante hears instead of Freddie Mercury is Ari’s little cousin screaming in his ear. He bolts up right, causing Ari to faceplant into the mattress.

“What the fu-“

“Hey whatcha up to small one?” Dante says rushed, trying to cover Ari’s curses.

“Grandma says you two have to come eat now or she says you two are still young enough for a butt whooping,” the little girl smiles mischievously before dashing off yelling, “Grandmaaaa they’reee awakeee!”

Dante hits Ari with a pillow, finally waking up Ari.

“The hell, Dante?”

“Your mom’s going to whoop our asses because we fell asleep with the door closed, and dinner’s ready.”

“Ah shit,” Ari says springing off the mattress in a neat roll. “Lets go then.”

They make to the dining room before either of Ari’s parents can give them an earful. As it is they earn a couple of whispers and giggles from Ari’s sisters as well as a stern look from Ari’s father.

Dante ignores it all instead heading straight for the table and all the delicious food that was ready to be eaten. There were all the traditional favorites; ham, mashed potatoes, rice, and pumpkin pie along with many other more Mexican favorites such as chile con queso, tamales, arroz con leche, and a steaming pile of fresh tortillas.

It made his mouth water and Dante wasted no time picking at a tortilla despite burning the tips of his fingers. Ari sits right next to him handing a plate over with a smile and they dig in.

“Ari look it’s snowing,” Dante says pointing outside the window. The last of the gifts had been opened and now everyone was lazing about, doing their own thing or helping the kids with their new toys.

Ari makes his way over to the window, tucking his chin into Dante’s shoulder.

“It’s really snowing,” Ari says slowly looking outside to where the snow flurries were desperately trying to stick to the ground.

“They’re just snow flurries I doubt they’ll stick overnight…” Dante begins saying but Ari hushes him already heading towards the coat closet.

“Ama! It’s snowing! Dante and I are going outside.” Ari calls tugging on his coat. He digs further into the closet pulling out a mismatched pair of gloves and what was probably his sisters beanie. Ari tugs on everything wondering around the room looking for his boots.

Now Dante was pretty sure he wanted to stay inside where it was warm and where there was no snow, but Ari looked so excited and happy that he didn’t even say anything, merely tugged on his snow clothes.

Outside they danced around, trying to scrape up the little snow there was into snowballs. Dante kept smiling at the way Ari would just look up at the night sky letting the snow hit his eyelashes, and face. He’d open his mouth a little to try and catch snowflakes only looking ridiculously dumb and cute.

“Ari, have you ever seen snow before?” Dante asks quietly moving to wrap his arm around Ari’s waist.

“Once, I think,” Ari says lowly catching snow in his hand. “When I was maybe seven or eight. It hardly snows here on Christmas if it snows at all. This… this is nice.”

Dante clears his throat steering his boyfriend back to the house. “Well I think now is a good time then to let you open my present.”

When Ari opens his present, he smiles wide, barking out a laugh. “How’d you know?” He looks down at the painting of the snow glittering down the mountains and down into the yards of what can only be Dante and Ari’s houses, the two of them outside tossing snowballs back and forth.

“Well it snows, like a lot, in Chicago so I had a lot of snow references.” Dante says shyly. “You like it?”

“I love it,” Ari says and scoots in, pressing a kiss to Dante’s cheek Ari’s sisters in front of them be damned.

**Christmas day.**

The next morning Ari wakes up to his entire window being frosted over.

“Ari, come look at the snow!” His mother calls and Ari is already running down the hallway tugging on his boots.

It must’ve snowed overnight because at least four inches of snow cover their backyard, icicles hanging low on the tree branches.

“I have to go to Dante’s,” Ari says turning around and heading straight to the front door.

“Not like that you aren’t,” his mom says placing a hand on her hip. “And not before breakfast, it is Christmas after all, don’t you think Dante wants a few moments of peace with his parents?”

Ari looks down at the pjs he’s wearing and the sockless feet stuffed into boots. Maybe he shouldn’t go to Dante’s looking like this. “You know what mom; I’m going to take a shower.” He heads back towards his room carefully planning on what he should wear.

For breakfast his mom sets down a steaming plate of eggs and tamales covered in red chile and Ari taps his leg against the chair shoveling the food into his mouth. He only stops once his dad tells him to relax the snow isn’t going anywhere just yet and to please calm down there are still presents under the tree.

Ari feels like he goes through the motion of opening up the last of gifts, the ones from his parents really and thanks them giving tight smiles.

“Oh alright! No use keeping you around any longer, go to Dante’s and tell him thanks for the gift,” his mother says pointing to the book on Texas history he’d given them.

Ari springs up, “I’ll be back for dinner I promise, it’s just mom its snow! Do you think it’s enough to build a snowman?” He doesn’t wait for his mother’s answer just goes to his room and pulls on his thickest coat, his gloves, and finally his beanie and scarf.

“Bye mom, bye dad!” He waves to them as he storms out the door Dante’s gift under his arm.

The walk is quick and brisk as another thin layer of snow begins to fall. Ari dodges the neighborhood kids starting snow ball fights and keeps his head down all the way until he reaches Dante’s house where his boyfriend is curled up on the patio swing in about five blankets plus his coat.

“I forget being in a desert for so long makes it hard to be in the cold again,” Dante yells moving aside so Ari had enough room to scoot in. “Here mom made hot chocolate.” Dante picks up a thermos and pours out a glass that he had tucked in the blankets.

“Have you been waiting for me?” Ari says taking the cup of hot chocolate.

“Nah… only for about an hour or so,” Dante admits. “The snow was too pretty not to be out here.

“True,” Ari says softly, gazing at Dante as how his cheeks were just the slightest bit rosy and the way he stared out at the snow made him look so handsome.

Ari thinks quick pulling Dante down by the neck and kissing his full on the mouth, quick and sweet.

Dante’s cheeks warm and he sneaks a glance out, “What was that for?”

Ari holds out his present, “Merry Christmas?”

Dante laughs pressing another kiss to Ari’s cheek, “Merry Christmas you dork.” He unwraps the present carefully, setting aside the wrapping paper unlike Ari who’d torn his to shreds, and stared at the book in his hands.

“Lord of the Rings, you got me The Lord of the Rings?” Dante asks covering his mouth with one gloved hand.

“Do you like it? We could go exchange it for something poetry if you’d like…”

“Stop your rambling, I love it Ari! It looks so beautiful, I can’t wait to read it,” Dante says bringing the book to his chest. “I’ll have to show my dad soon.”

“Can we build a snowman first?” Ari says shyly glancing out to the snow.

Dante jumps up pushing aside everything on the swing. “Ari would you like to build a snowman with me?”

Ari laughs and takes Dante’s hands. “Yes of course!”

They play out in the snow most of the morning until it begins to snow heavier causing the two boys to run inside the house where it was warm. “Boys come warm up!” Dante’s mom claps. The two shrug off their coats and head into the living room.

There’s bowls of soup of the coffee table and blankets on the couch. Dante’s mom laughs at them as they fight over the blankets and settle into the couch with their bowls of soup.

“Looks like the snow is falling pretty hard there, huh?” Dante’s mom says peeking out the window.

“I wonder if it’ll snow the rest of the day?” Ari says spooning more soup into his mouth. “Can you believe it, we actually got snow on Christmas.”

“You think it’ll stick?” Dante asks pulling the blanket to cover both him and Ari.

Dante’s mom stands up, ruffling both boys’ hair fondly. “Who knows, but we sure are luck we got this little bit of snow.”

As evening fell the snow kept packing in and Ari and Dante made two more snowmen before calling it a night, they managed to convince Dante’s parents to let them see a movie while they ate more soup. Ari couldn’t help the smile that stayed on his face the entire time as Dante wrapped them both up in about five blankets because he couldn’t get warm.

Eventually it got so dark they couldn’t see the snow anymore if it was still snowing outside anyways, causing a small panic to rise in Ari chest. “I don’t think you’re walking home in that,” Dante said matter-of-factly giving a pointed look to the frost on the windows.

“I think my mother might kill me,” Ari mumbled remembering that he should’ve been home a while ago.

“Ari,” Dante’s mom calls coming into the living room. “I spoke with your mother earlier, I don’t think she’ll be killing you anytime soon.” She smiles and sits down on the sofa across from them. “I agree with Dante, though, you’re not walking home.”

The roads were so icy that Dante’s dad had to drive him home slowly, almost no one out and about anymore as the sun faded behind the mountains in streaks of pink and yellow.

Ari stood waving until Dante and his father pulled out of the driveway before rushing back into his house where is father was starting a fire in their fireplace, the living room smelling of mesquite and pine.

Ari carefully unwrapped the layers off of himself heading towards the couch where his mother was waiting for him along with three steaming mugs of hot chocolate and left-over pie. She smiles warmly at him making sure to tuck his feet under the blanket she had draped across the couch.

Ari smiles back taking his own mug of hot chocolate into his hands letting the warmth bring back feeling into his fingertips. “I think this has been the best Christmas of my life.”

“Is that so?” His mother hums passing the third mug to his father who welcomes it, giving Ari a small smile as well.

“Yeah,” He says his eyes traveling towards the fire. “ _Feliz Navidad_.” He says quietly tucking his feet under his mother’s legs. Nothing could ever top the past two days in his mind, nothing at all.

It snowed for the rest of the week that year, the news called it the wild and unexpected. The scientists shook their fists and screamed global warming, but for Ari and Dante the snow was bliss. Well for Ari mostly, Dante complained about the shoveling and about how, “We live in a desert for fucks’ sake, why is it snowing so much? Ari, no don’t laugh at me! It was only sixty-eight degrees last Sunday and now it’s 5 below? What the actual fuck?”

Ari laughs and tosses snow up in the air letting it sprinkle down around them.

Dante makes his way over to him and drags his head down, catching him in a messy kiss.

“Merry fucking Christmas babe.”

“And a happy fucking New Year _amor_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! if you'd like follow me :   
> tumblr : 75-spiderlingheart  
> twitter: @spiderlingheart


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